l have looked at the pictures mentioned by David and have noticed that there are wires coming out of the back of the chair, clearly linked to an engine or some other power source set in the floor. l suspect that the chair is in fact a centrifuge, a machine used to train astronauts, that spins around at an adjustable speed. The saboteur might have tampered with the machine's speed dial and caused Steed to spin rapidly until he blacked out from the strain, causing the test to be stopped and Steed to be revived.

Based on my observations above, l suspect that Dragonsfield is not just a research facility, it is intended as an astronaut training facility, which would give the saboteur, Susan Summers, greater reason to act, especially if its opening is imminent, as l suspect.